Bangs shook the castle, and a great cavalcade of transparent figures galloped past on

Horses, their heads screaming with bloodlust under their arms. Harry staggered to his feet

when the Headless Hunt had passed and looked around: The battle was still going on all

Around him. He could hear more scream than those of the retreating ghosts. Panic flared

Within him.

“Where’s Ginny?” he said sharply. “She was here. She was supposed to be going

back into the Room of Requirement.”

“Blimey, d’you reckon it’ll still work after that fire?” asked Ron, but he too got to

his feet, rubbing his chest and looking left and right. “Shall we split up and look – ?”

“No,” said Hermione, getting to her feet too. Malfoy and Goyle remained

slumped hopelessly on the corridor floor; neither of them had wands. “Let’s stick

together. I say we go – Harry, what’s that on your arm?”

“What? Oh yeah –“

He pulled the diadem from his wrist and held it up. It was still hot, blackened with

Soot, but as he looked at it closely he was just able to make out the tiny words etched

upon it; WIT BEYOND MEASURE IS MAN’S GREATEST TREASURE.

A bloodlike substance, dark and tarry, seemed to be leaking from the diadem.

Suddenly Harry felt the thing vibrate violently, then break apart in his hands, and as it did

So, he thought he heard the faintest, most distant scream of pain, echoing not from the

Grounds or the castle, but from the thing that had just fragmented in his fingers.

“It must have been Fiendfyre!” whimpered Hermione, her eyes on the broken

Piece.

“Sorry?”

“Fiendfyre – cursed fire – it’s one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I

would never, ever have dared use it, it’s so dangerous – how did Crabbe know how to –

?”

“Must’ve learned from the Carrows,” said Harry grimly.

“Shame he wasn’t concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really,” said

Ron, whose hair, like Hermione’s, was singed, and whose face was blackened. “If he

hadn’t tried to kill us all, I’d be quite sorry he was dead.”

“But don’t you realize?” whispered Hermione. “This means, if we can just get the

snake –“

But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled

the corridor. Harry looked around and his heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had

Penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling

Masked and hooded men.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help: Jets of light flew in every

direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw

a high forehead and streaked hair –

“Hello, Minister!” bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who

Dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort.

“Did I mention I’m resigning?”

“You’re joking, Perce!” shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed

Under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground

With tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea

Urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.

“You actually are joking, Perce. . . . I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you

were –“

The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred,

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 519